This invention relates to online advertising, and more particularly, to delivering a wrapped package of cards in response to a selection of an online advertisement. In various examples, the online advertisement may appear within a web page, within a social media feed, or within an email or other electronic message.
Advertising on the Internet has now become ubiquitous. Ads are now routinely delivered to Internet users by email, through web sites and/or via social media such as (but not limited to) Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumbler, etc. A larger percentage of these ads are delivered in the form of either a microsite or an application.
A microsite is a separate web page or a cluster of web pages provided as a discrete entity within a parent web site. The main landing page and any additional page(s) of a microsite typically is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier (URL) separate from the home page of the parent web site.
Microsites provide specialized or specific information within the context of a broader overall parent website. For instance, an auto manufacturer may have a company web site that provides product information for all of their cars, SUVs, and trucks. Within the company web site, a microsite may be provided for announcing the release of an upcoming new hybrid car. Within the microsite, one or more pages may be devoted to all the attributes of the new hybrid car, such as a technical explanation of hybrid technology, the green benefits of hybrid technology, safety features, cost benefits of owning a hybrid, as well as other product information, such as promotional videos, product brochures, etc.
Microsites are also commonly used for commercial purposes. For example, when a banner ad appearing on a web site is selected, a microsite will often appear within the browser, enticing the viewer to purchase goods and/or services. The particular microsite appearing within the browser may be either static or dynamically generated. With static microsites, the same landing site, as authored, will always appear. With dynamic microsites on the other hand, the landing site and other content included within the page(s) of the microsite is at least partially dynamically generated and presented to the viewer, depending on a number of factors. For example, the landing page and/or other content may be dynamically generated based on factors such as location and/or demographics of the viewer, and other analytics, designed to increase click-through rates and increase commercial activity through the microsite.
Since microsites are fundamentally web sites, they are authored and distributed in essentially the same manner. The pages of a microsite are typically written in HTML and include information such as text, colors, backgrounds, and often links to images and other types of media, to be included in the final view of the web page when displayed through the browser. Layout, typographic and color-scheme information is typically defined by a style sheet language, which can either be embedded in the HTML or can be provided by a separate file, which is referenced from within the HTML. When a banner ad is selected, for example, the URL of the landing page of the corresponding microsite is accessed, resulting in the serving of the appropriate files, and optionally any dynamically generated information, during a session with the requesting device. The browser, running on the requesting device, then presents to the viewer the static and/or dynamic media content of the landing page and any subsequent page(s) as the viewer navigates the microsite.
Like all web sites, there are a number of advantages and disadvantages of using microsites for presenting media content to viewers. In general, microsites are optimized for desktop computing, providing a rich opportunity for viewer interaction. With mobile devices, however, particularly mobile phones or wearable computing devices such as smart watches, small display screens and limited input/output capabilities, often results in a poor user experience. When viewing a microsite authored for the desktop through a screen on a mobile phone it is often very difficult to read text and view images. It is also very difficult to input data and navigate from one page to another. As a result, the user experience on mobile computing devices is often poor and frustrating. Furthermore, web sites are typically “destinations”, meaning a viewer usually has search and find a web site, and any ads contained therein, before the web site can be viewed. Also web-sites are self-navigating. As a result, the user experience while browsing the web site is typically defined by the viewer, not the author of the web site. In addition, the authoring of highly interactive, content-driven, microsites designed to create a positive user experience requires a high degree of software expertise and sophistication. As a result, the creation of microsites designed for Internet commerce for instance, is often very expensive and beyond the financial means of many small businesses and organizations.
More recently with the proliferation of “smart” mobile phones, mobile applications (often referred to as “apps”) have become exceedingly popular. As a result, advertisers have begun to use apps for advertising. For example, an advertiser may create a link within a web site. When the link is selected, the viewer is presented with an option to download an app.
Apps also have many advantages and disadvantages. On the positive side, apps often provide viewers with a content-rich, rewarding, user experience. A well-designed app allows viewers to sequence through a number of views, presenting content in an orderly fashion. On the negative side, apps are typically “stand alone” software applications that do not easily interact with other software applications. As result, the functionality of apps is often limited, only capable of performing the specific task(s) they were designed to perform, and working only with the specific endpoints contemplated at the time they were developed. For example, a retailer may create an app that provides an excellent user experience for showcasing product offerings. However, due to their closed nature, the app typically cannot be integrated with other software tools. As a result, it is often difficult or impossible to create the necessary integration functionality for a viewer to purchase a product and/or service through the app. Also, the design and authoring of apps is typically very complex and requires a very high level of design engineering expertise to develop, especially for apps that are polished, professional and appealing to viewers. In addition, apps typically are not cross-platform. App developers typically have to create and distribute multiple versions of the same app for the iOS/Apple, Android/Google and the Microsoft platforms. As a result, the development and maintenance costs associated with creating and distributing an app is complex and very expensive. Finally, apps typically have to be distributed through an application aggregator, such as the Apple App Store or Google Play. Apps, therefore, are typically not be directly downloaded from the author/creator to viewers or consumers.